The End
by George5876
Summary: Gale Hawthorne was left burned after the taking of The Capitol, can a burned girl help him out?
1. Chapter 1

**The End**

**Chapter 1**

"'Gale? Gale. Come on, buddy, wake up.' Those were the first words I heard. I thought I was dead, those peacekeepers, the fire, everything, I thought they'd shot me, or the place had exploded, I don't know, anything, I just thought I was dead. Then some guy found me, I don't know who, they didn't hang around, but they knew me, they must have known me well, I guess, or they knew my bow, or, whatever! They woke me up, but they left, I couldn't move, moving hurt too much, talking was the same, I could just lie there and wish for the pain to stop. That was _everything_**, **there was nothing outside the pain, it was my world. But, I guess you know how it feels." I look over at the scarred girl in front of me, sitting there with worry in her eyes, this hairless girl, who I'd scorned not so long ago, Madge Undersee looked right back at me. I don't think I looked that different to her, scarred all over and completely bald. "I guess you know the story from there, someone finds me after a few hours and I'm rushed to a hospital. It was days before they let me wake up, a week before they let me have a mirror, several before they told me that someone had thrown something into the house and made it explode." I glanced at her again, then looked down to the floor. ". Wa-was it worse for you? With no one there, just on your own?" Madge nodded, looking down towards the floor and her eyes glazing over slightly. "Madge, it's alright, I'm here, nothing's gonna happen." I reached over and patted her hand gently, making her start. "Sorry, I forgot, no contact, right?"  
This time she shook her head. "It's not that, it's just, it always hurts, but it didn't, _everything_ hurts, Gale, but it didn't."

"You mean you've healed? We'll have a party! I'll find some berr-" I stop, mid-sentence as I remember I'm not allowed outside. "Maybe no berries then." I finish sadly.

"Maybe they could find some berries for us, something nice?"  
I shake my head. "It wouldn't be the same. Madge, can I, can I hear your story?"

Her eyes harden. "No. Never. No one. Ever. Don't ask again, however much you want to. I won't tell."

"I won't ask, Madge, never again, I promise." Everyone had guessed at her story, she had been found in the woods, crawling and nearly dead, burned from head to toe. It was a wonder she was still alive, the fires had destroyed everything else, except her. She must have been walking to Victor's Village, because she wasn't at the meadow, but why would she go there? I shouldn't think about this now, later, or never, not now. Then the bell pealed and the pair of doctors walked in to take us back to our beds, with me scowling all the way.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

A week later the nurses were talking in hushed whispers, wrongly thinking I couldn't hear, Clarence, the one in charge was saying "I don't think it's a good idea, it's hard enough to get him to talk as it is, and this last week he's barely said a word."

Julia, I like Julia, she's nice, she's the only one who doesn't treat me like I'm some useless broken thing, she replied "But Madge, it's helped her so much, and even Gale, it's a good silence, not just hiding from the world, more accepting, I think."  
"Silence is bad, Nurse, silence means more time figuring out what he needs, and less treating patients."  
This made me frown, wanting my voice; I said softly "Are you taking me to see Madge?" making Clarence jump slightly and turn around to look at me. "Mr. Hawthorne, it would be bad for your health."  
I sat up in my bed and turned to get off it, "I'll go myself, then." I said, making Julia laugh quietly as the blood rushed to my head and I swayed momentarily. Rushing over to my bed, Clarence exclaimed "Lie down this instant!" I didn't bother to reply; just let my feet reach the floor and stood up shakily. Clarence tried to push me back into the bed "Mr. Hawthorne, I must insist." But I just pushed her hands away and started walking very slowly down the corridor. My years of hunting had given me a brilliant sense of direction, so it wasn't hard to find my way back to the room we had used last week. Stumbling through the door, I just managed to make it to the couch before I collapsed, grinning from ear to ear, "I did it!" Madge laughed and the two nurses standing around her chair looked at me in shock. "I told you he was coming, now, if you will leave us be." Madge dismissed them quickly.

When I'd caught my breath, I asked "What'd they tell you?"  
"That you didn't want to come, but I knew you'd be back."

"And how did you know that?"  
"You want to know my story, Man on Fire, even though I'm not going to tell you."

Smirking at her new name for me, I remembered something, a vague memory of the woods, a Sunday with Katniss, where she told me about Madge and the pin. "You think I'm intrigued, do you, Mockingjay?"

Smiling at the nickname, she shook her head. "I heard about their idea, they knew you could walk, silly, but you're too stubborn to do what they tell you."  
"So these meetings were a snare. You should try it in the woods someday; you'd catch all the squirrels in a morning."

"I'm not all a gorgeous face and pretty dresses."

"Certainly not the dresses anymore."

"You think? Next week. We'll dress up. I'll show you my pretty dresses."

"It's a date."

Which made her laugh. "Oh, Mr. Hawthorne, you certainly know how to charm a girl." And she blew a kiss across the room.

"Only the Mockingjays with pretty dresses. Now, how about we make your ruse work even better?" And I stood back up and offered her my arm.

"Man on Fire, you are incorrigible! I doubt they'll let you near me next week, in case you take advantage of me!" But, never the less, she stood up and linked her arm with mine, before we walked out the door to the astonishment of the four nurses arrayed outside.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The next week flew by, pretty boring really until my hour with Madge. The next week followed the same, and the next. It was halfway through my sixth week, I was in the café, eating the slop they called food, even squirrel was better than this stuff. Julia came over and sat next to me, "Rubbish food, right?" Nodding, I kept eating. "Well, why I came over, they're talking about letting you out, you know, to wherever you want to live."  
"They're letting me out? When?"  
"Next week, but, don't say anything to Madge, she, uhhhh, she was in a much worse state than you, they can't let her out."

"You're going to bring me in every week?"  
"Gale, there aren't the resources, we can't ship you in from anywhere."  
"Then I can hang around? Where's Katniss going to go?"  
"You know what's happened, she might not live out the week, Gale, even if she does, she'll end up back in Twelve, we can't get you from there."

"So, I have to choose, Katniss or Madge, well damn." My spoon hits the slop and I push my tray away and lean back in my chair.

"I didn't want to have to tell you this, but you're gonna need time."

I get up and look at her, before saying with venom in my voice "Thanks-" my voice softens as I see the concern in her eyes "Thanks for letting me know." and I stalk off.

I stalk my way to the main doors, throw a quick "I need some air" at the nurse sitting next to them and barge through, out into the bright Capitol noon. Not even fazed by the light, I walk down some streets until I find a house that doesn't look like anyone lives in, letting out a grunt; I ram the door with my shoulder and knock it down. Picking up the first thing inside the door, a spindly side table, I smash it into the wall, making it splinter into a thousand fragments. Letting out a roar I sink my fist into the weak wall, breaking through it before kicking it, spinning round, grabbing a pot and throwing it into a different wall. I pick up the table the pot was on, my muscles straining, not used to the effort, and smash it into the wall, breaking a massive hole in it. Dropping the table, I sink down against the door frame, the tears filling my eyes as I start to sob quietly.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

It can't have been long, maybe an hour, when an old man walked past and saw what I'd done, and me sitting there. "Son, when you smash a place up, it's usually a plan to get out quick." Which forces a hard bark of a laugh from me.

"I wish it was that simple."  
"Got a girl in your mind, but not your arms, eh? Well, this won't woo her. You need to get romantic, son."

"I wish it was that simple, I don't know, I just, don't know." My voice falters at the last words and my fist clenches again.

"Well, the furniture don't know either, so beating it 'ain't gonna help. Son, you need to find the girl and tell her, get her to take a walk or summin'."

I sigh as I look up at him. "There're two girls, one I've loved for a long time, and one I wouldn't be here without. And it's not like I can ask either of them to come for a walk with me."

"You know, this 'ain't as new as you think, when I was your age, I had my eye on a pair of girls, and you know what my father said to me? He sai-"  
"I don't care what your fa-" I see the look on his face and try to keep a lid on it, "Sorry."  
"Well, he said 'If you truly loved the first one, you wouldn'ta fallen for the second now, would ya?' and I went and found my Elsie and I told her, to keep it short, we been together for around fifty years now."  
"Fifty years? Through a rebellion . . . through a war . . ." I look up at him. "I'm sorry I broke your city, and this house, but now I have to go." I get up and offer him my hand, which he shakes, before I walk off towards the hospital.

As I walk back towards the hospital, I can't help remembering all the time I've spent with Katniss, the days spent hunting, that time in the Hob, the day she told me about her name, the katniss plant, I'd always known she was a survivor, that day I found out that her father knew it so long ago. After all that, I couldn't have just fallen for some other girl, could I? But if it wasn't like that, then why did what that old guy had said feel so right? As I had this thought, I walked into the plaza with the hospital, and the first thing I know is Julia running towards me "Gale!" she calls, "We couldn't find you. They want to know where you want to go, you're out in three days." My mind stops on a memory of myself and Katniss, hunting around District two during the war and I turn to her "What about Two?"

"We can get you here, if that's what you want." Her voice is laced with concern.

"Then I'll live there and hunt, come up and see Madge when I can."  
"Gale," She pauses for a moment, "I'll sort it out for you." And she turns and walks back into the hospital, after a few minutes, I follow her.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

District Two is nice, but lonely, I spend my days in the woods outside the fence, and I'm quite successful, but I stay alone, every time I try and take someone else they scare the deer, the birds. All through the week I look forward to Sunday. Sunday is Madge Day, the one day I don't hunt dawn till dusk. I have a house near the gate, easier to get outside, it's not massive, but it's too big, there's too much silence. Which, I guess, is why, a couple of months later, after Katniss had gone to live in Twelve with Peeta, me and Madge were in our room, as normal.

"Gale, they're letting me out!" she squeaks as soon as she sees me.

"They are? Amazing! But, where are you going to live?"

"I don't know yet, all I've known is Twelve, but there's all the adventure, all the things I've never seen."  
"You know," My mouth is suddenly dry, like I haven't had a drink in years, "you know, you could always come and live with me, in Two."  
She looks at me, an eyebrow raised. "And how do I know you're not just saying that so you can watch me in the shower, Boy on Fire?" And she laughs, like a golden waterfall coursing straight into my ears.

"I'll make sure I do, Mockingjay, I wouldn't want to let you down, after all." I reply with a wink.

She smirks a bit after that, and comes over to sit on the arm of my chair, where she leans in and whispers breathily into my ear, "I'd rather you got in with me." and bursts out in a fit of giggles.  
I look at her earnestly, "That can be arranged" and before I can even think about what I'm doing, I'm leaning in and pressing my lips to hers, a moment later she pushes me back and looks at me, "I'm, I'm sorry." I blurt out, blushing crimson and looking at the floor.

The next thing I know, her lips are right by my ear, and I can just hear her breathing "Does that mean I don't get another?" and I look up and into her eyes, which are staring straight back into mine, this time she's the one who leans forwards and kisses me, but this time neither of us pushed the other away and it was a few minutes before we part, breathless and slightly dizzy, and as our eyes find each other again, and she whispers, "Gale," a slight pause, "Gale, I want to tell you my story."

The End.


End file.
